High latitude regions are experiencing considerable winter climate change, and reduced snowpack will likely affect soil microbial communities and their function, ultimately altering microbial-mediated biogeochemical cycles. However, the current knowledge on the responses of soil microorganisms to snow cover changes in permafrost ecosystems remains limited. Here, we conducted a 2-year (six periods) snow manipulation experi-ment comprising ambient snow and snow removal treatments with three replications of each treatment to explore the immediate and legacy effects of snow removal on soil bacterial community and enzyme activity in secondary Betala platyphylla forests in the permafrost region of the Daxing'an Mountains. Generally, bacterial community diversity was not particularly sensitive to the snow removal. Seasonal fluctuations in the relative abundance of dominated bacterial taxa were observed, but snow removal merely exerted a significant impact on the bacterial community structure during the snow melting period and early vegetation growing season within two consecutive years, with a reduction in the relative abundance of Chloroflexi and an increase in the relative abundance of Actinobacteria, and no evidence of cross-season legacy effects was found. Moreover, snow removal significantly altered the soil enzyme activities in the snow stabilization period and snow melting period, with an increase in soil acid phosphatase (ACP) activity of snow melting period and a decrease in polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity of snow stabilization period as well as beta-glucosidase (BG) activity of snow stabilization period and snow melting period, but this effect did not persist into the vegetation growing periods. The seasonal variations in bacterial community and enzyme activity were mostly driven by changes in soil nutrient availability. Overall, our results suggest that soil bacterial communities have rather high resilience and rapid adaptability to snow cover changes in the forest ecosystems in the cold region of the Daxing'an Mountains.

Variations in the chemical composition of geofluids and of gas fluxes are significant parameters for understandingmud volcanismand correctly estimate their emissions in carbon species, particularly greenhouse gas, methane. In this study, muddy water and gas samples were collected from the Anjihai, Dushanzi, Aiqigou, and Baiyanggou mud volcanoes in the southern Junggar Basin during the four seasons, around a year. This region hosts the most active mud volcanism throughout China. Gas and water were analyzed for major molecular compositions, carbon and hydrogen isotopes of the gas phase, as well as cations and anions, hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of water. The emitted gases are dominated by CH4 with some C2H6, CO2, and N-2. The seasonal changes in the chemical composition and carbon isotopes of emitted gases are not significant, whereas clear variations in the amounts of cations and anions dissolved in the water are reported. These are higher in spring and summer than autumn and winter. The CH4, CO2, and C2H6 fluxes are 157.3-1108 kg/a, 1.8-390.1 kg/a, and 10.2-118.7 kg/a, respectively, and a clear seasonal trend of the gas seepage flux has been observed. In January, the macro-seepage flux of open vents is >= 65% higher than in April, whereas the micro-seepage flux significantly decreased, probably due to the frozen shallow ground and blockage of soil fractures around the vents by heavy snow and ice during January. This probably causes an extra gas pressure transferred to the major vents, resulting in higher flux of the macro-seepage in the cold season. However, the total flux of the whole mud volcano system is generally consistent around a year.

The optical properties and sources of brown carbon (BrC) have been poorly constrained in climate models due to the variability of spatiotemporal characteristics, impeding the accurate understanding of its impact on air quality and climate. In this study, daily PM2.5 samples, which were collected from January to November 2021 in urban Taipei, Taiwan, and seasonal variations of optical properties of water-soluble and methanol-soluble organic carbon (WSOC and MSOC) were evaluated. The light absorption coefficients at 365 nm (Abs(365)) of both extracts, which strongly correlated with WSOC and MSOC mass concentrations, displayed distinct seasonal variations with the highest in winter and the lowest in summer. The Absorption Angstrom Exponent of WSOC and MSOC ranged from 4.16 to 7.75 and 4.03-6.83, with averages of 6.05 +/- 0.56 and 5.29 +/- 0.61, respectively. The mass absorption efficiency (MAE(365)), which normalizes the Abs(365) of both extracts to the mass of WSOC and MSOC, showed significant seasonal difference with the high MAE(365), (WSOC) of 0.96 +/- 0.29 m(2) g(-1) in winter and the lowest in summer of 0.49 +/- 0.07 m(2) g(-1), whereas contrasting with the largest MAE(365), (MSOC) of 0.99 +/- 0.46 m(2) g(-1) in summer and the lowest in winter of 0.66 +/- 0.28 m(2) g(-1), respectively. Fossil fuel combustion, such as traffic emission, and biomass burning, such as crematorium, were identified to be important contributors to light-absorbing substances. The estimated fractional radiative forcing by WSOC and MSOC to elemental carbon was most significant during winter (8.15 +/- 3.77%) and spring (13.90 +/- 4.38%), respectively, which may greatly affect the atmospheric photochemistry and climate. This study suggests that the impact of BrC in Taiwan on the local and regional air quality and climate is non-negligible.

Glaciochemical records serve as one of the best archives and as good proxies to indicate regional and global anthropogenic influences. The Himalayas, with fragile ecosystems and pristine environments, hold the third largest reservoir of glacier ice and represent an ideal region to investigate trace metal pollution using glacier records. Limited studies on glacially recorded trace metals in the Himalayas usually collect samples from individual glaciers and report a few trace metals in different seasons. We provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the glacially recorded trace metals in the central Himalayas regarding their spatial distribution, seasonal variability, and anthropogenic signals. We analyzed six representative metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, Pb, Co) and found that the trace metal concentration range largely varied between the studied metals and sampling sites. The Zn metal concentration is higher, attributed to the contribution of natural sources (e.g., forest fires, dust storms) and anthropogenic sources, including industrial and traffic-related emissions. The Pb concentration showed striking seasonality due to the relatively natural input of local material during the monsoon season and the regional and long-range transport of anthropogenic sources during the non-monsoon season. There was a clear spatial variation in certain trace metals, such as Cu, Zn, and Pb, showing decreasing trends with increasing elevation. The enrichment factor (EF) results showed that Zn metal was highly enriched, followed by Cu and Cd, indicating that Zn metal was relatively highly susceptible to intensified human activities. The seasonal paradox between the enrichment factor and metal concentration revealed that the EF of the monsoon season was usually higher than that of the non-monsoon season, and vice versa regarding metal concentrations primarily associated with metal deposition in regional climate regimes, particularly atmospheric circulation. We suggest that the analytical method can influence the trace metal concentration and EF calculation, resulting in a previously unrecognized bias in the seasonality of trace metals. Future research should prioritize stable isotopes of trace elements (e.g., Pb, Cu) in glaciers that would provide valuable information in identifying the potential source of anthropogenic inputs and the degree of extent affecting the glaciochemistry of the Himalayas.

Understanding how microbial communities adapt to environmental stresses is critical for interpreting ecological patterns and microbial diversity. In the case of the Gobi Desert, little is known on the environmental factors that explain hypolithic colonization under quartz stones. By analyzing nine hypolithic communities across an arid gradient and the effects of the season of the year in the Hexi Corridor of this desert, we found a significant decrease in hypolithic colonization rates (from 47.24 to 15.73%) with the increasing drought gradient and found two distinct communities in Hot and Cold samples, which survived or proliferated after a hot or a cold period. While Cold communities showed a greater species diversity and a predominance of Cyanobacteria, Hot communities showed a predominance of members of the Proteobacteria and the Firmicutes. In comparison, Cold communities also possessed stronger functions in the photosynthesis and carbon metabolism. Based on the findings of this study, we proposed that the hypolithic communities of the Hexi Corridor of the Gobi Desert might follow a seasonal developmental cycle in which temperature play an important role. Thus after a critical thermal threshold is crossed, heterotrophic microorganisms predominate in the hot period, while Cyanobacteria predominate in the cold period.

Uncertainties in the seasonal changes of greenhouse gases (GHG) fluxes in wetlands limit our accurate understanding of the responses of permafrost ecosystems to future warming and increased nitrogen (N) deposition. Therefore, in an alpine swamp meadow in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a simulated warming with N fertilization experiment was conducted to investigate the key GHG fluxes (ecosystem respiration [Re], CH4 and N2O) in the early (EG), mid (MG) and late (LG) growing seasons. Results showed that warming (6.2 degrees C) increased the average seasonal Re by 30.9% and transformed the alpine swamp meadow from a N2O sink to a source, whereas CH4 flux was not significantly affected. N fertilization (4 g N m(-2) a(-1)) alone had no significant effect on the fluxes of GHGs. The interaction of warming and N fertilization increased CH4 uptake by 69.6% and N2O emissions by 26.2% compared with warming, whereas the Re was not significantly affected. During the EG, although the soil temperature sensitivity of the Re was the highest, the effect of warming on the Re was the weakest. The primary driving factor for Re was soil surface temperature, whereas soil moisture controlled CH4 flux, and the N2O flux was primarily affected by rain events. The results indicated: (i) increasing N deposition has both positive and negative feedbacks on GHG fluxes in response to climate warming; (ii) during soil thawing process at active layer, low temperature of deep frozen soils have a negative contribution to Re in alpine ecosystems; and (iii) although these alpine wetland ecosystems are buffers against increased temperature, their feedbacks on climate change cannot be ignored because of the large soil organic carbon pool and high temperature sensitivity of the Re. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Light absorption characteristics of carbonaceous aerosols are key considerations in climate forcing research. However, in situ measurement data are limited, especially on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) - the Third Pole of the world. In this study, the mass absorption cross (MAC) of elemental carbon (EC) and water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) of total suspended particles at two high-altitude stations (Lulang station and Everest station) in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were investigated. The mean MAC(EC) values at 632 nm were 6.85 +/- 1.39 m(2) g(-1) and 6.49 +/- 2.81 m(2) g(-1) at these two stations, both of which showed little seasonal variations and were slightly higher than those of EC of uncoated particles, indicating that the enhancement of MAC(EC) by factors such as coating with organic aerosols was not significant. The mean MAC(WSOC) values at 365 nm were 0.84 +/- 0.40 m(2) g(-1) and 1.18 +/- 0.64 m(2) g(-1) at the two stations. Obvious seasonal variations of high and low MACwsoc values appeared in winter and summer, respectively, mainly reflecting photobleaching of light absorption components of WSOC caused by fluctuations in sunlight intensity. Therefore, this phenomenon might also exists in other remote areas of the world. The relative contributions of radiative forcing of WSOC to EC were 6.03 +/- 3.62% and 11.41 +/- 7.08% at these two stations, with a higher ratio in winter. As a result, both the contribution of WSOC to radiative forcing of carbonaceous aerosols and its seasonal variation need to be considered in radiative forcing related study. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Labile soil organic matter (SOM) plays a crucial role in nutrient and carbon cycling, particularly in permafrost ecosystems. Understanding its variation is therefore very important. In the present study, we evaluated the seasonal patterns of labile SOM from April 2013 to March 2014 under alpine swamp meadow (ASM), meadow (AM), steppe (AS) and desert (AD) vegetation in permafrost regions of the China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The fractions (0 to 10 cm depth) included dissolved organic carbon (DOC), light-fraction carbon (LFC) and nitrogen (LFN), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN). These fractions showed dramatic seasonal patterns in ASM and AM soils, but were relatively stable in AD soil. Soil DOC concentrations in the ASM, AM, and AD soils increased from April to May 2013, then increased again from July to August 2013 and from February to March 2014. The LFC and LFN concentrations in all four vegetation types were higher from June to August 2013. The highest MBC and MBN concentrations in the ASM, AM, and AS soils all occurred in the summer and the ASM soil showed a second peak in October or November 2013. Seasonal changes in climatic factors, vegetation types, and permafrost features were great causes of labile SOM variations in this study. Throughout the entire sampling period, the ASM soil generally had the highest labile SOM, followed by the AM, AS, and AD soils; thus, the ASM soil is the best system conserving soil nutrient (especially labile fractions) and microbial activity. Correlation analysis indicated that these fractions were not related to soil moisture and temperature in AS or AD soils, but soil temperature and moisture were significantly related to MBC and MBN in AM soil and DOC in ASM soil. Thus, the response of the labile SOM fractions in this high-altitude permafrost soils to climate change depended strongly on vegetation types. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.